Issue - meetings

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Audit Partnership providing a mid-year update on work conducted by Mid-Kent Audit in pursuance of the audit plan agreed by the Audit Committee in March 2015 and a commentary on the broader objectives of the Internal Audit service in helping to ensure good governance at the Council.  In introducing the report, the Head of Audit Partnership highlighted the following issues:

Safeguarding Arrangements

The Head of Audit Partnership explained that this audit review covered the specific statutory obligations the Council had under the Children Act 2004 for ensuring the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults in its areas of responsibility.  Whilst the Council did not have the same level of responsibility as an authority providing education and social services, it did have a responsibility to remain vigilant and make referrals.

It had been concluded from the audit work that there were weak controls over the Council’s safeguarding arrangements.  Although the Council was satisfying its statutory obligations for safeguarding, and there were no immediate concerns to report, areas had been identified where improvements were needed to provide greater resilience and to ensure safeguarding risks were being adequately managed.  These included introducing a Deputy Local Authority Designated Officer to provide resilience and introducing a central database of all safeguarding referrals submitted to ensure that when issues did come to light, the Council was recording and passing on the information consistently and accurately.

The actions arising from the audit work would provide the Head of Service and the Safeguarding Working Group with the necessary support to ensure that in time the Council would be able to restore its safeguarding arrangements to the level of effectiveness that Members would wish to see.

In terms of timeframes, the majority of the recommendations were due for implementation by not later than 31 March 2016.  Some of the recommendations were quite substantial, and included the development of policies and processes.  An update on implementation of the recommendations would be included in the Internal Audit Annual Report to the Committee in July 2016.

Risk Management

The Head of Audit Partnership advised the Committee that work was underway towards establishing a comprehensive risk register covering service, project and corporate risks.  To help identify the risks that could impede the Council’s ability to achieve its corporate objectives, the Council had commissioned Grant Thornton to lead the risk workshop scheduled to be held on 14 December 2015.

Mid-Kent Audit Service Update

The Head of Audit Partnership drew the Committee’s attention to changes which had been made to the structure of Mid-Kent Audit to provide greater capacity at all levels of the service, but particularly at management level to increase the ability to respond rapidly to changing risks and priorities and to deliver focused strategic reviews.  The revised team structure included the appointment of Russell Heppleston as Deputy Head of Audit Partnership.

In response to questions by Members, the Head of Audit Partnership explained that:

·  The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) was an exercise that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43